Everyday Is A Miracle

On Saturday, July 25, Bobbie and I attended our first Bone Marrow Transplant at Stanford University Hospital. Once you pass the one year mark, you are eligible to attend the annual event, held each July. Our son James attended this awesome event and videoed the speech I gave at the event. Unfortunately, the file is quite large and I’m having technical difficulty uploading it to the site. I’ll do my best to work through these difficulties this week, but in the meantime I’m going to post the text of the speech. I’ll also try to post it on my Embracing Cancer – Embracing Life, Facebook page as well. I hope you enjoy it.

Albert Einstein once said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.” Now I’ll admit that I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, as a matter of fact, if Einstein is the machete, then I’m the push broom, but I’m sharp enough to know that he was making the case for living life as though everything is a miracle.

I’ll confess to being about 60 years late to the party, but being diagnosed with cancer changed everything. Today, I stand here in full acknowledgement and acceptance that every breath I take is a miracle. My transformation began the moment I heard those three little words most of us gathered here today have heard. You – Have – Cancer! Looking back, I find it so ironic that it took being given an expiration date for me to finally wake up and notice that everything and everyone…including me is a miracle.

That amazing transformation continued through an unknown number of needle pokes and doctor visits, trips into operating rooms from sea to shining sea, an ambulance ride on the country’s bumpiest dirt road and countless hours watching chemo drugs drip, drip, drip into my chest. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? There were times when I wondered what possible purpose all of these little inconveniences might have. Now of course I know…it was to get me ready for the Bone Marrow Transplant!

Today, 18 months later, the transformation continues unabated. Each day I discover new ways to share my love of life with others and realize, more and more, just how beautiful the people around me are. Einstein was right, everything is a miracle. Thank you.